The City of Evansville has broken ground on Sunset Skate Park located right on the riverwalk beyond Mickey’s Playground.
Project supporters and city employees have put shovel to dirt symbolizing the start of construction for this long-awaited skate park.
Deputy Mayor and Interim Parks Director Steve Schaefer said they’re now planning on late summer 2023 for the park opening with contractor Deig Brothers Construction completing Phase 1 of the project.
“We broke it up into two phases, because we wanted to get started as soon as possible,” he said. “And so all the groundwork and installation and getting the site ready before the concrete starts. That'll be Deig Brothers.”
Hunger Skateparks of Bloomington designed the park. Schaefer said the city has not yet bid for a Phase II contractor.
“If we have more days like this, it'll be a lot lot sooner, but it should be a pretty quick construction,” Schaefer said.
This is later than the original plan of early 2023 completion, with delays due to design changes and approvals from the Army Corps of Engineers, Levee Authority and CenterPoint Energy.
Still, when complete, the park will be the largest in the state, said Heather Vaught, who led the grassroots effort to get to this day. It’ll also support a range of ages and skill levels.
“We'll have two different bowls, as well as a flat track area for like quad skaters,” she said.
“But it'll also be kind of usable for you know, kids that are even just learning how to ride a bike. And then we have a really large BMX community here. We definitely have a lot of features that cater to them. So there's really just something for everyone.”
The park will cost about $1 million dollars in public and private funds.
“We really have had very little to no pushback about anything,” Vaught said. “I think the community is really excited to have a place for people of all ages, but especially our youth to be able to go have physical activity, something productive to do.”
